Letters to the Ontario Attorney General re the Father Jose Silva “sweet deal”

The letters/emails on this page have been sent to the Honourable John Gerretsen, Attorney General of Ontario, regarding the “sweet deal” brokered Father Jose Silva which enabled Silva to flee the country before standing trial and facing his accuser in a court of law. Those presently known to be party in some manner to the Silva deal are Dean Paquette (Silva’s lawyer) and Carey Lee (assistant Crown attorney)

If you believe that those who thumbed their noses at the courts, made a mockery of the legal system and enabled a suspect sexual clerical predator to elude justice must be held accountable please contact the Ontario Attorney General:

Ministry of the Attorney General
McMurtry-Scott Building
720 Bay Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON
M7A 2S9

If you are agreeable to your letter being published here please send me a copy ([email protected]) or paste it as a comment on this page. This both allows us to have an idea of how many people are contacting the AG and gives others the impetus to follow suit. You may also wish to copy your letter to Hamilton’s CHCH TV ( [email protected]), the Hamilton Spectator ([email protected]) and/or other media of your choice.

________________________________________

Our Reference #: MC-2013-1108

Mr. Michael Fitzgerald

[deleted by Sylvia]

Oshawa, ON

[deleted by Sylvia]

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald:

I am writing in response to your additional letter dated February 19,2013, regarding R. v. Silva. I have been asked to respond on behalf of the ministry.

I can assure you that the Criminal Law Division of the Ministry of the Attorney General takes sexual abuse very seriously, particularly by those in a position of trust.

As indicated in previous correspondence, the Crown and defence entered into an agreement that would see the accused return to Brazil without being prosecuted on condition that he not return to Canada. As part of the agreement, he will be prosecuted if he returns to Canada. This is not common practice.

As human resource matters are confidential, the results of our review of this matter will not be released to the public.

The Ministry will not be making any further comment on this matter.

Sincerely,

James L. Cormish

Assistant Deputy Attorney General

Criminal Law Division

_____________________________

Hon. John Gerretsen,

McMurtry-Scott Building,

720 Bay Street,

6th Floor,

Toronto Ont.

M7A-2S9

February 19/2013

Michael James Fitzgerald,

[redacted]

[redacted]

[redacted]

Your Ref. #’s MC-2012-3444/MC-2012-3466

Dear Sir;

I acknowledge receipt of your correspondence to me dated August 23/2013, and appreciate the response.

Regarding R. v. Silva, I remain concerned about this matter. I also concede that you may very well have protected the citizens of Ontario from this person by the actions taken by Mr. Carey Lee and Dean Paquette. However, this person has not been proven guilty of his alleged offence by an Ontario court, and as such is still considered innocent of this charge.

I have made inquiries regarding the where-abouts of Fr. Jose Silva in Brazil, and his location and standing appears to be a very well guarded secret.

I realize that your office will not comment on “human resource or personal matters relating to staff”, but can you comment to me regarding the standing of the investigation into this matter/ You have now been investigating this matter for over seven(7) months.

With all due respect to your office, I have known of some very complex and intricate murder investigations that have concluded successfully in a much shorter time frame than this.

I do not wish to “rile” your office so-to speak, but I DO need some personal satisfaction regarding this matter. I am a victim of a roman catholic priest in the years 1973 and 1974 (sexual assault) and my case is now pending, so as such I feel I have a vested interest in the above matter.

Please, if you can release ANY information to me, I would appreciate it. Even knowing that the investigation is continuing will give me comfort for the time being.

Below is an e-mail that I sent to Ontario’s Attorney General concerning Asst. Crown Carey Lee and the deal given to Father Jose Silva. I sent this e-mail on Jan. 28th and I recieved a response today (Feb. 11). I think that I can honestly say that this is one of the quickest non-reply replies that I have ever recieved. The non-reply will be posted seperately [see above]…….

The Right Honourable John Gerretsen:

I am re-sending an e-mail that was previously sent on August 6th of last year. At the end of this e-mail I finished with “Anticipating your reply”. Re-reading this e-mail upon having not recieved a reply to date I see that I have not asked any direct question to warrant a reply. Having heard no word out of the Attorney General’s office regarding any “internal investigation” results I would have to assume that either the investigation is still ongoing or that no action is being taken with regards to Assistant Crown Carey Lee’s actions.

With no word forthcoming from your office in six months, I feel that I have no choice but to swear a private information charge against Mr. Lee under section 139 (1) -of the Criminal Code: Obstructing Justice…”Every one who wilfully attempts in any manner to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice in a judicial proceeding.”

I am requesting information on how to go about swearing a public information charge against Mr. Lee.

Emails/letters to the Right Honorable John Gerretsen

I sent you an e-mail and a letter through the regular mail on Aug. 2/2012 regarding the case of Father Jose Silva, Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Hamilton, and the sly under-handed deal he was offered by your Assistant Crown Attorney Lee, in cohorts with Fr. Silva’s defence attorney Mr. Paquette.

I have not had ANY response to my concerns, from your office.

I demand to know why your Assistant Crown attorney participated in counselling a suspect to break our laws even further by helping Fr. Silva flee the country without even consulting with Justice Burgess.

The silence of your office seems to even further undermine the public’s faith in the justice system, and brings into disrepute even further, your office!

If someone in your office would at least stoop for one minute to at least acknowledge my existence, if not my concerns, I would be most grateful.

Michael J. Fitzgerald

___________________

The Hon. John Gerretsen August 2/2012

Attorney General

Province of Ontario

Dear Sir;

I am writing you today to implore you to FULLY investigate the matter of one Father Jose Silva, Roman Catholic Priest formerly of the Diocese of Hamilton.

Fr. Silva’s defence attorney (Dean Paquette) and the Asst. Crown attorney (Carey Lee) conspired in secret, with Fr. Silva’s blessing, to thumb their noses at our Criminal Justice system and work out a secret deal to get Fr. Silva out of the country before he was to face criminal charges before Justice Burgess.

I am quite sure that you need not be reminded about Section 21 of the “Criminal Code of Canada” wherein it is stated that “ where a person counsels another person to be a party to an offense” they are in fact guilty themselves of the offense.

Carey Lee and Dean Paquette have seriously compromised the integrity of our justice system, and seriously undermined the public’s faith in the system.

I demand that your office fully investigate this matter, return Fr. Silva to Canada to face his criminal charge, and have anyone intimately involved in this case criminally charged.

I am DISGUSTED with these antics! I feel that the “high profile” lawyers in this case should hang their heads in shame.

Can you, Sir, imagine how the victim of Father Silva’s actions feels right now?

Sincerely;

Michael James Fitzgerald

c.c. – Editor, The “Toronto Star”

c.c – Mark Bonokoski The “Toronto Sun”

_____________________________________

07 August 2012

Dear Mr. Gerreston

I operate Sylvia’s Site (www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress) a blog which deals predominantly with clerical sexual predators. Attached to the blog is The Inquiry (www.theinquiry.ca), a website which details testimony and information regarding the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

I am aware that your office allowed a “sweet deal” in which Father William Hodgson Marshall entered a guilty plea in exchange for assurance that no further sex abuse charges would be laid against him in Ontario.

I had and continue to have deep troubles with the legalities of that deal. It is difficult not to look at it through the eyes of the victim who finally musters up the courage to go to police, give a statement, await the results of investigation, be told that charges will be laid, and then finally advised: ‘Sorry, there’s a deal – we can’t prosecute.’

I fail to understand how any Crown can broker such a deal. If it is legal than surely it must at the very least be unethical?

That is one “sweet deal” with which I am familiar which was proffered a clerical sexual predator in Ontario through your office.

I thought that was bad. Then I read about the Father Jose Silva deal.

I am in fact contacting you regarding the recently publicized actions of assistant Crown attorney Carey Lee, defence attorney Dean Paquette which enabled Father Jose Silva to flee the country to elude justice.

I was appalled to learn that Father Silva’s accuser will not have opportunity to see justice done. I was disgusted that this situation was actually orchestrated by two lawyers. I was, quite frankly, aghast that one of the latter two is an assistant Crown attorney.

If this “sweet deal” afforded a suspect clerical sexual predator does not blatantly obstruct justice and/or flagrantly bring the administration of justice into disrepute I don’t know what does.

I understand that your office is investigating the situation. I trust that the deal will be fully investigated by an impartial body and that charges will be laid where warranted.

Your office was party to the prosecution of former officer Perry Dunlop on charges of criminal contempt of court. There was much talk during those proceedings of Mr. Dunlop’s actions or non-actions bringing the administration of justice into disrepute. If such was the case for a layman how much more so for an assistant Crown who so boldly set a suspect clerical predator loose and in so doing thumbed his nose at the courts, the “alleged” victim and we who are all too often deemed the unwashed masses?

I realize that unless he is foolish enough to return to Canada Father Silva has, thanks to his enablers, eluded justice. I realize too that that unfortunately can probably not be undone. I do trust however that justice will now be done to at least ensure that those who orchestrated this travesty of justice are held publicly accountable.

Hoping that a modicum of justice will be done, I am

Yours truly

Sylvia MacEachern

_____________________________________

06 August 2012

The Right Honorable John Gerretsen:

I am writing you concerning a “deal” that was made in a Hamilton, Ontario case between a Crown Attorney (Carey Lee) and a defense attorney (Dean Paquette).

The case that was BEFORE the courts at the time involved a Roman Catholic priest, Father Jose Silva, on a charge of sexual assault.

I know by now that you are fully aware of the “deal” of which I speak, as it has been all over the news in the area. Brendan Crawley has been reported as saying that “the deal is not common practice, and that an investigation looking into the matter is under way.”

Mr. Lee’s and Mr. Paquette’s actions in this matter are nothing short of criminal contempt of court, and obstruction of justice at its worst. They showed flagrant disregard for the course of justice by stopping this case dead in its tracks and then playing coy, and lying to Justice Burgess when asked of Father Silva’s whereabouts on the day of a scheduled court appearance. Mr. Lee and Mr. Paquette also went further in their criminal actions by somehow drawing in the aid of the Canadian Border Services Agency, thereby allowing Father Silva to escape both justice and the country with no questions asked.

In some quotes which I have attached below I am going to draw a parallel to a case that I watched transpire VERY closely just a few years back. In this case a former police officer (Perry Dunlop) refused to testify at the Cornwall Public Inquiry and was incarcerated 7 months for his actions. The main quotes of Justice Glaude that I want to use in this parallel are these…..“the intent and knowledge that it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.” The commissioner pushes to have Perry “incarcerated.” This, according to Glaude, would serve as a deterrence “Our legal system is wounded when court orders are ignored” says Glaude. “The sentence must be one which will “repair the wound and denounce the conduct.”

Mr. Lee’s and Mr. Paquette’s actions are nothing short of anarchy, which is defined as “as state of society without government or law”, “lack of obedience to an authority; insubordination”. I am certain Mr. Gerretsen, as an officer of the court that you would frown upon, and punish accordingly, a victim of a crime that would take the law into his own hands. Why in this instance should we as a society not expect the same of you in punishing accordingly a Crown Attorney and a defence lawyer who took the law into THEIR own hands and let an accused fly to freedom?

Justice Normand Glaudes’ quotes………

“Glaude calls for Perry’s incarceration for a “significant period.” In a 23 January factum Justice Glaude alleges that “Mr. Dunlop’s blatant disregard for the work of the inquiry and refusal to participate diminishes public confidence in the work of the commission and should be punished accordingly.” He further alleges that Perry “has ‘thumbed his nose’” at both the Court and Commission” and that his disobedience has been “open, continuous and flagrant” with “the intent and knowledge that it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

The commissioner pushes to have Perry “incarcerated.” This, according to Glaude, would serve as a deterrence “Our legal system is wounded when court orders are ignored” says Glaude. “The sentence must be one which will “repair the wound and denounce the conduct.”

“6………..The Commisioner appreciates that in the ordinary course the Attorney General should become involved in prosecutions for criminal contempt so as to maintain the integrity of the justice system in (is) a matter of public importance. The Commisioner anticipates that the Attorney General will participate in the return of this stated case for contempt. The Commisioner submits, though, that this Honourable Court is entitled to the assistance of the Commision on the issue and therefore makes the following submissions.

I have had the unfortunate experience to witness the carriage of Justice go off the tracks in several provinces of our beautiful Country….from Ontario to Quebec, from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia…where not everyone has been equal before the Law!….

…as an ex-Police officer who cut short his career because of the loss of trust in our legal system…I want to highlight my absolute indignation at the “sweet deal” affair involving Father Joe Silva, who was allowed to leave the country without facing the Justice system, to bask in the sun of his native Brasil!!….

A clear, concise and impartial message needs to be heard by Canadians who long for an honest administration of Justice. Sexual abuse, sexual offences, sexual assaults by clergy should no longer slip under the radar. Their position of authority should be the focus of our attention ….not their social status!!

I and many other victims and families of victims of sexual abuse demand more transparency and more serious penalties for clerical-sexual abusers…Defence lawyers, Crown attorneys need to be held accountable for their “illegal deals”…

Ontario leads the rest of this Country….

So….You are the Attorney General… for this country!

…LEAD!

jg

14 Responses to Letters to the Ontario Attorney General re the Father Jose Silva “sweet deal”

*I was kind of “informal” with my letter…but my E-mail gives him/them my E-mail address and I had my name and address on the original… Didn’t get a confirmation that the E-mail was received, as is most often the case(!?) with government offices…

I think you’re right JG – my experience is confirmation of receipt not the norm. It usually takes time for a reply, if any, but someone reads them and the message gets through to someone. I too included my mailing address, as did others.

I know of cases where reply came many weeks later via Canada Post. We shall see….

Due to a lack of response from the Attorney-General’s office to my e-mail and regular mail letter, I have re-submitted my request for information via e-mail. I find this lack of response somewhat discomfitting. I would think that the highest court officer in our province would be more forth- coming and more concerned about a serious breach of ethics and circumventing of our laws than he appears to be. Mike.

Recently, due to a COMPLETE lack of response from the AG’s office to my letters and e-mails, I sent a letter to the Premier’s office asking him to intervene on my behalf regarding my attempts at getting assurance from the AG that he was investigating this Jose Silva matter. The Premier’s response was polite, generic, and offered to forward my concern to the AG’s office. Pretty nice of him, eh? I still have not heard one PEEP from anyone about this sordid little deceptive affair. I understand that Mr. Lee (Asst. CA) is conveniently on a six month “sabbatical”, whatever that means. My guess would be that the flames in the kitchen were getting too hot. On Friday Oct. 26/12, the Toronto Star interviewed Mr. Gerretson. Now get a load of this! Mr. Gerretson has created a “strict” new policy of dealing with Police Officers who lie under oath! He says, and I quote, “When there are concerns raised about the integrity of our justice system, we take them very seriously” I weep in my corn flakes!!!! I am just stunned that this man, our AG, is willing to slam-dunk any cop who lies under oath, but turns a blind eye to his Asst. CA’s deception and manipulations regarding Fr. Jose Silva. In a nutshell, I believe Gerretson’s office and his assistants broke the law in getting Silva spirited out of the country before his charges could be faced. More to come folks. Mike.

I have been in contact with the office of the Ombudsman for the province of Ontario. They are now looking into this matter, including why the AG’s office is being so “mum” on everything. I suspect they will hit a stone wall as most other inquiries have met, but at least rattling the chain will keep the matter fresh. More to come……………………………. mike.

The office of the Ombudsman is unable/unwilling to press this matter with the AG’s office. They have been in contact with me since my original complaint of Nov./2012, but have now closed my complaint. mike.

i have read reports,books and a movie which was based on the story of what happened at mount cashel and of coarse the oprey winfrey show . if father jose silva done a deal with the justice system for his crime /crimes that he was guilty of does this leave the door open to all offenders of the same crime / crimes . or does it mean being a priest give him special treatment . i would have thought being a priest and found guilty of his crime/crimes he would have done the decent thing and faced the sentence that should have been given to him . who knows maybe being inside a prison he would have the time to repent his sins rather than be in a nice climate and forget them.

I would have thought the same, John. Apparently the Province of Ontario’s judiciary felt differently, and decided for reasons unknown to this day to ship Silva out of the country, and escape (likely forever) having to face his accuser in a criminal courtroom.
Silva obviously has no conscience, nor does his enablers. Mike.

Obviously the crown did not consider the citizens of Brazil and children there when agreeing to this deal and this priest may very well be a priest in a church there now. Shame on our lax crown or incompetent one however you want to.look at it. He should have been tried here and deported so that Brazil citizens would be aware of any danger!!

Crooked Ontario justice system!!!! They protect the criminal but I guess since their crooked they have to protect themselves. There was a known mobster Rocco Zitto who committed murder against someone who owed him money in a loansharking deal, Loansharking is illegal so this murder should have got him a first degree murder rap. Instead he got charged with second degree murder and the crown agreed to manslaughter. A dangerous mobster gets a reduced charge by the crown and gets out of jail quicker to continue Hus dangerous mobster activities. Crooked justice system all around that enfpdangers all of us!!!

I keep saying we have only hit the tip of the iceberg. Most of the Central American countries are only beginning to see the devastation caused by the priesthood. What repeatedly strikes me, is the level of understanding, involvement and almost camaraderie amongst these pedophiles. Everyone was willing to cover for them, the doctors, other priests, the lawyers, the bishops, was everyone “in” on it? How has such a wide scale operation of repeated child sexual abuse been allowed to continue? And why are the sentences so short? The children of abuse are damaged for life, their futures are stolen from them, does that mean nothing? I have tremendous difficulty understanding this.

Geenda – their communication is unspoken, but they seem to be able to get messages to each other almost telepathically. They recognize each other just through body language, tone of voice, and spoken hints.
It’s eerie. Mike.

To all concerned, I am suspicious and continue to wonder where Jose Silva ended up, and what he is doing.
I wonder if our judiciary here in Ontario care a whit, or have they just turned a blind eye and ear to this charade.
I still am of the opinion that the actions of the Attorney General (Gerretson) and lawyers Paquette and Lee brought a heavy and dark disrepute (with help from Canada Border Services) to hang over the administration of justice here in Ontario. Mike.

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Bob Drew
…it’s not terribly difficult. I use a “Feed Reader” called Feedly. It’s free to use, although there is a paid option. Feedly offers apps for phones and tablets as well, which will all sycnchronize
These instructions apply to the desktop (PC / Mac) version:
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